IN PARTNERSHIP WITH: L'Orient Le-Jour (Lebanese daily in French language)

AND THE SUPPORT OF: Langages et Expressions.

FINANCING PLAN: Please see image below.

SYNOPSIS: In the heart of Beirut, in a very old colonial-style building among the few that still remain today, the residents live here like a big family.

Coffee between neighbors in the building halls, makeshift barbecues in the middle of the stairways every Sunday… In the midst of these apartments always open to each other and often noisy, students of the French-speaking theater school climb their way up to the last floor with enthusiasm. The butcher and the baker on the ground floor are used to note the orders that are shouted from the floors, and groceries are lifted up in a basket with a rope.

All around them, luxurious towers are conquering the city, shadowing its sky and its horizon. As the city is growing taller, individualism is reshaping all social codes behind well guarded doors, shutting minds and doors at the face of the other.

Would they still be able to live like they used to”? Is their building a symbol of hope and resilience? Nothing is less certain, because if like this building, some old constructions survive, it seems that it is only for a short while. All are at the mercy of constant speculations in the name of profit and gain. The memory of Beirut is sold to the best buyer, and the living marks of its memory, soon to be completely wiped out.

“The Cedar and the Steel” is a journey to the country of the Cedar, to its values threatened to decline, to the country of a middle-eastern childhood and its future, a journey into the real life, the one of true people with essential values.

Does the film predict a battle…lost in advance? Or does it just portray the image of a country drifting beyond salvation?

(Texte traduit plus bas)
Valérie Vincent directed her first short film in 1995 but it’s only since 2000 that she is regularly directing documentaries. She studied at the National Conservatory Marcel Dupre in France where she graduated with honors. She…